How Builders Can Sort Through the Green Building Fog

Sidebars: Green Building and Fair Advertising Wood Structural Framing Green Attributes

Builders face a nearly endless flood of green product claims while numerous home rating programs compete for their attention. It can be difficult to know where to start with green building, or how best to expand if you're already committed to environmentally responsible construction.

Two product certificate/report tools introduced in 2009 provide builders an easy way to see products' green features, and how those products can earn points under major green building programs like the National Green Building Standard™ and LEED® for Homes. The certificates/reports are:

• National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center's Green Approved products certificates, and
• International Code Council Evaluation Service's (ICC-ES®) Sustainable Attributes Verification and Evaluation™ Program (SAVE™) Verification of Attributes Reports™.

These tools provide independent verification of manufacturers' green claims, and link the listed products to specific point categories to help streamline the process of earning a green home rating.

NAHB Research Center Green Approved Products

In broad terms, the Green Approved mark is intended to help bridge the gap between manufacturers who make green products and builders and designers who want to use them.

In broad terms, the Green Approved mark is intended to help bridge the gap between manufacturers who make green products and builders and designers who want to use them. Builders seeking a green rating for their homes under the National Green Building Standard can select products with the mark to avoid the hassle of having to do their own time-consuming research to determine if a product is eligible to contribute points.

The pre-approval not only helps builders make product selections more quickly, it also helps speed the in-the-field review of the home by the project verifiers. As such, selecting products with the mark can potentially reduce the time needed to get the home finished, rated and ready for sale.

Builders should be aware that the National Green Building Standard doesn't award points for products in and of themselves, but rather for how they're used. In other words, Green Approved products must be used in sufficient quantities or in certain conditions specified in the certificate under which they're issued.

Determining this is straightforward since the product certificates specify the conditions in brief and simple paragraphs. For example, if a builder is using iLevel TimberStrand® LSL or another Green Approved engineered wood product, the product certificate shows the specific ways those products can contribute green building rating points and spells out how they must be used.

Illustrating this, one area in which the National Green Building Standard awards points is when "products containing fewer materials are used to achieve the same end-use requirements as conventional products." In the case of TimberStrand LSL, the certificate lists that the product is eligible to contribute three points toward a green home rating, and that to earn these points, "at least 80% of structural composite lumber in the building is this product." The certificate also spells out all other areas where points are possible with the product.

The NAHB also provides an online Green Scoring Tool that includes information on Green Approved Products. Builders can use the tool to help plan their projects and see what level of green building rating is possible depending on which green building measures they use.

ICC-ES SAVE Program

Using a third-party evaluation of a product manufacturer's green claims can help builders focus on building and selling their homes, rather than on doing in-depth research on what constitutes green.

Many builders are familiar with product code reports from ICC-ES, and now the code organization is providing green product evaluations. Their Sustainable Attributes Verification and Evaluation (SAVE) Program is the first of its kind to both verify the sustainability of building materials and determine how the products may qualify for green building points within multiple green building rating systems, including:

• The National Green Building Standard
• LEED for New Construction and Major Renovation
• LEED for Homes
• 2008 California Green Building Standards Code, and
• Green Globes™.

The advantage of this tool is that it shows in one place a comprehensive listing of how builders need to use evaluated products in order to earn points within the various rating programs. It helps simplify the green building process by allowing ready comparison of how products can fit within five different green building programs.

Similar to the NAHB's Green Approved Products certificates, manufacturers submit their products to ICC-ES for evaluation of their green product claims. As such, it provides a third-party verification of a product's green attributes. ICC-ES evaluates products according to guidelines that address the entire production process, from raw material acquisition to final manufacturing and packaging. They then issue a Verification of Attributes (VAR™) Report.

ICC-ES provides these reports for view on its Web site. The format is comparable to that used in the NAHB's Green Approved Product certificates (see for example VAR 1008, which reports on the iLevel engineered wood products discussed previously).

In addition to showing eligibility within the five rating programs, a nuance in the VARs is that they distinguish between "eligible for points" and "verified attributes:"

• Eligible for points means that the product can potentially earn points based on how it is used, while
• Verified attributes means features of the product have been confirmed by ICC-ES.

The difference is that the former category is more conditional, while the latter is more universally applicable. An example from LEED for New Construction illustrates this point.

LEED for New Construction allows up to two points for "products that are extracted, processed and manufactured within 500 miles of the site for a minimum of 20% (by cost) of total materials value."Clearly, this can only be known based on the location of the jobsite and the product source, and is thus conditional. On the other hand, the rating system also provides one point for use of "composite wood products containing no added urea formaldehyde resins." This is an inherent feature of a product, rather than conditional, so ICC-ES is able to designate the product outright as verified or not.

An additional feature of the ICC-ES VAR reports is that they provide a way to see how products fit into complex areas of green building such as Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). Put simply, LCA is the next stage in evolution of green building and looks at the full range of environmental impacts of a product, from manufacturing to how it's used to what may become of it when the building is eventually decommissioned. Green building rating systems are increasingly incorporating LCA, so knowing how a product may fit within this is another way to potentially earn rating points. Fortunately, ICC-ES has identified the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) report as a "verified" attribute for residential wood-frame construction provided that the end-user also agrees to the boundary conditions and life cycle data established in the CORRIM peer-reviewed report. This interpretation provides an important connection between the common use of wood in residential construction and the complex analysis typically done by LCA professionals.

Conclusion

There are many ins and outs to building a green home, and numerous ways to approach it, from simple measures to complex ones. Using a third-party evaluation of a product manufacturer's green claims can help builders focus on building and selling their homes, rather than on doing in-depth research on what constitutes green.

Green Building and Fair Advertising As green advertising has exploded, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been kept busy policing claims made by all types of advertisers, from consumer goods to building products. As with earlier ads promising that goods were "natural" or "organic," "green" messages are everywhere, and not always honestly applied. In homebuilding, it's especially important to be forthright about green marketing since consumers are making a large, and often very emotional, investment in a physical, long-lived product. Points awarded to homes by green building rating programs lead to decisions about tangible things: heating systems, water systems, building frames, paint, lighting, landscaping, etc. Homebuyers will live with the choices resulting from these point systems for many years. If the products match their expectations, they should enjoy the results. If they have been misled to expect something more or different, they will likely be disappointed. The FTC aims to protect consumers by prohibiting “unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” In a nutshell, the FTC considers an act or practice deceptive if it contains a representation or an omission of information that would be material to consumers - important to their decision to buy or use a product - and that would mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances. These regulations apply to all types of companies, including building product manufacturers, as well as homebuilders. The agency has published a set of Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. The general principles include: Ensure claims are "sufficiently clear, prominent and understandable to prevent deception" Make clear the scope of the claim (for example, does it apply to the entire product, its packaging or just a portion of the product) Avoid express or implied overstatements of benefits State clearly the basis for comparisons (for example, a claim of “our homes are greener” should state what this is in relation to, such as “compared to a typical code-built home” and what the specific green features are, such as energy use and water use) If in doubt about what types of claims are legitimate for your green homes, consult an attorney. Wood Structural Framing Green Attributes Although other structural framing materials have emerged over the past several decades, wood continues to be the most widely used for its affordability, ready availability and adaptability. Builders can also use it to help meet green building goals. The ways in which wood can help contribute to green building rating points varies within each rating program, but some of its environmental benefits include: Energy Savings The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) found that wood framing uses less energy than steel and concrete construction for a typical house. Wood also generates less greenhouse gas emissions than steel and concrete, and less of other air pollutants. As such, it performs well in Life-Cycle Assessments (LCA), and can help reduce homeowners’ energy use compared to other framing materials. Renewable Resource Wood is renewable and often provides a net benefit in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. In other words, wood building products store more carbon (absorbed from when the trees they come from were growing) than it takes to make them. Efficient Material Use Engineered wood products can be made from logs that are too small for solid-sawn lumber. The manufacturing processes use virtually every portion of every log to produce strong, straight and consistent framing members, or for fuel to power the mills.

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About the Author

Rob Brooks is the Green Buildings Program Director for iLevel by Weyerhaeuser. iLevel offers a range of residential, multi-family and light construction framing materials, technical support and software. www.iLevel.com, 888-453-8358

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